Harrington School Forum October meeting, “Tiger in the Sky”

30 Oct 2014

Thursday, October 30, 2014, 4:30-5pm, UClub, 95 Upper College Rd

“Tiger in the Sky” is a powerful story of love and war. Young Fred Marshall from Seymour, CT enlisted soon after Pearl Harbor and began training to become a fighter pilot. Along the way he and Ruth Hoff of Bethany, CT were married. Ruth saved Fred’s letters and they serve as the backbone of the story that turns tragic on March 26, 1945 when Fred is shot down in the Battle of Laohokow. To tell the story I needed to consult military records, interview surviving friends and family, etc.–research that put the war letters into a larger context. My talk will concentrate on the challenges of the research that went into this project and ironies and “nuggets” discovered along the way.